Hair curl clips



1951 F. J. CURRY 2,996,069

HAIR CURL CLIPS Filed Sept. 14, 1959 United States Patent 2,996,069 HAIR CURL CLIPS Francis Joseph Curry, Barnt Green, England, assignor to Laughton and Sons Limited,Warstock, Birmingham,

Warwickshire, England, a British company Filed Sept. 14, 1959, Ser. No. 839,966 Claims priority, application Great Britain Oct. 3, 1958 4 Claims. (Cl. 132-48) This invention relates to curl clips of the kind comprising two hair holding portions urged by spring force into a holding position and opened, by two handle parts. In such clips the springs is usually loaded in torsion with one end bearing against one handle part and the other end bearing against the other handle part.

The haid holding portion and the handle part are usually made as a single pressing, stamping or moulding; but in order to enable them to be hinged together the two stampings or the like must dilfer from each other to some extent which prevents them from being stamped or otherwise produced by the same tools and from being assembled readily. For example one member may be made with external trunnion-like lugs on its sides to engage in holes or bearings pressed in the sides of the other part. This lack of uniformity adds to the steps of manufacture and of assembly by requiring additional tools and also requiring care in handling, otherwise they may become mixed in machine hoppers and cause hindrance and trou ble to machine operators or may necessitate skilled attention to tools or machines, if wrongly fed thereto.

An object of the invention is to provide a simple construction of a hair curl clip both components of which are of the same construction and can be produced by the same press tools and can be readily assembled together.

The appended drawings illustrate a curl clip with each of its hinged components having a single hair holding part only, but obviously more may be employed on each, arranged to overlie or mesh with these on the other part.

FIGURE 1 is a plan of complete clip FIGURE 2 is a side view of the clip FIGURE 3 is a plan of one arm of the clip separated from the other and without the usual spring FIGURE 4 is a side view of the arm seen in FIG- URE 3 FIGURE 5 is an inverted plan of the arm seen in FIG- URE 3 FIGURE 6 is a section along the line 6-6 of FIG- URE 3.

The present invention comprises a hair curl clip of the kind comprising two hair holding portions urged by spring force into holding position and opened by two handle parts, wherein the two components are alike and produceable in the same press or like tools, each having two separated incisions in the handle part including cranked portions which, when the median portion between the incisions is displaced to some extent from the two side portions, define opposing lugs in the side portions and, when the two components are assembled with their side portions towards each other and the displaced median portions remote from each other, the spring is located around the opposing lugs of the components with its ends engaging the respective handle parts to separate them.

When two exactly similar parts are assembled against each other (after turning one 180 about its longitudinal iXiS) the two inwardly directed lugs of each are super- )osed, one set on or slightly above the other, and the two aarts are hingedly connected by springing into place a :oiled spring with its end coils around the lugs and its we extended ends bearing against the respective inner aces of the two handle portions of the clip.

In the drawings a indicates the hair holding parts of the lip, b, c are the handle parts, d is the helical coil of the 2,996,069 Patented Aug. 15, 1961 spring and, 2, fits ends which engage and so tend to separate the respective handle part b, 0 under the torsional loading of the spring in known manner. The letters g and h represent two separated incisions in the handle parts which incisions are shown in the drawings as parallel except for a cranked part marked i and j which are directed towards the longitudinal centre line of the handle parts b and c and each defines an inwardly projecting lug I. It is not essential that the whole lengths of the incisions should be parallel, but it is convenient that the parts defining the lugs and near to the hair holding part should be parallel and ensure opposite disposition of the lugs which enter the ends of the coil d of the torsion spring.

The incisions also define a median part k of each handle part b and c. This part k is displaced from the surrounding part as seen in FIGURES 4 and 6, but is left connected at its ends after the pressing operation. The surrounding parts of the handle are inclined from a trans verse line through the opposing lugs formed at i and j to the extermity. The median parts k near the lugs l of each of the exactly similar pressings, which are assembled to form the clip provide together accommodation for the helical coil d of the spring and a protecting cover for the fingers as the divergent handle parts are pressed towards each other in use to open the hair holding parts a.

The inner edges of the surrounding parts of the handles b and c are at approximately the centre of the coil of the spring in its position between the lugs formed by the incisions i, j and within the cover provided by the displaced median parts k so that displacement of the spring is prevented.

Each pressing, stamping or moulding forming the parts of the clip is preferably provided with a projecting tongue in on one side portion of the handle part and with a narrow slot n in the other side. Then, when two pressings etc. are placed together, inner face to inner face, an engagement sufficient to retain them in this related position will be provided by the tongue in of each entering the slot 11 of the other.

The slot n in each handle part for the reception of the tongue m in the other part need not result in removal of metal or material; it may be plunged leaving the metal or material attached at one edge so as to prevent the presence of any loose scrap metal or material in the tools or machine. The tongue m is formed by the metal displaced from a longitudinal U-shaped incision, and the narrow slot n is preferably formed as a lateral slot.

The invention efiects considerable economy in production and results in an improved article.

What we claim is:

1. A hair clip made of two identical metal pressings, both producible in the same dies, and a wire coil torsion spring, each metal pressing comprising a hair-holding limb and a handle part at an angle to the limb, each handle part having means for retaining it in opposed relation to the other when they are assembled and having two separated longitudinal incisions and each incision having a cranked portion near its end towards the limb, said cranked portions being opposite each other in order that when the median portion of metal between the incisions is displaced from the side portions, the cranked portions define inwardly projecting lugs on two separated side bars, on which lugs the ends of the coil of the wire spring are located with the wire ends engaging the respective handle parts in order to separate them and urge the limbs into gripping position.

2. A hair curl clip comprising two identical components and a torsion coil spring, each component consisting of a hair-holding portion and a handle part set at an inclination to the hair-holding portion and having means for retaining the two components in superposed relation wherein each handle part has a longitudinal median part displaced from it but connected to it at each end thus leaving side bars on each handle part spaced away from each other the inner edges of which Side bars present oppositely directed lugs; the two components being assembled with the side bars of the handle parts towards each other and the displaced longitudinal median parts remote from each other in order to en close a space in which the helically coiled torsion spring is located about the oppositely directed lugs of the side bars with one end of the spring bearing on the inner face of one handle part and the other end of said spring bearing on the inner face of the other handle part.

3. A hair curl clip as claimed in claim 1 in which the median portion of the metal of each of the hand parts between their unsevered ends is so displaced that when the handle parts are assembled, they provide accommodation for the helical coil of the spring and a protecting cover for the fingers as the divergent handle parts are pressed towards each other to separate the hairholding limbs.

4. A hair curl clip of the kind comprising two hairholding portions urged by the force of a helically coiled torsion spring into a holding position and opened by two handle parts, wherein the two components are alike and producible in the same press or like tools, each having two separated incisions in the handle part includ ing cranked portions which, when the median portion between the incisions is displaced to some extent leave two side bars on each handle part and define opposing and inwardly projecting lugs on these side bars which side bars have a projecting tongue and a narrow slot respectively, which when the two components are assembled with the helical coil of the spring about their lugs and within the displaced median portions, the tongue of each one will enter the narrow slot of the other to connect their hinged parts together.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 286,572 Arzt Oct. 16, 1883 1,479,739 Radtke Ian. l, 1924 1,678,166 Repay July 24, 1928 1,893,281 Goodman Jan. 3, 1933 2,570,341 Hake Oct. 9, 1951 2,849,008 Otten Aug. 26, 1958 

